On the 10th day of Advent, he gave to me, a Renault Saviem SM8, #225, 5th place finisher of the 1980 Dakar.
The SM8, a 4x4 platform medium duty truck produced for about 22 years by Saviem, and Renault.
In this case, you have to do the building, but on the bright side, you have less parts to contend with than with the original, 2 sheets, with instruction diagrams.
On Day 9, we are treated with the FIAT Campagnola off roader, #174, which finished 19th in the 1982 Dakar. The Campagnola was inspired by the Willys Jeep, both in civilian and military version.
As for the model, at 1:100, you also get two versions, easy and complex.
Day 8 brings the Renault Alpine A310 #139 which had to abandon the 1981 Dakar. This version of the Alpine A310 was the next version of the Alpine based on the original A110, and was a popular sports car in the early 1980s in Europe.
In the early years of the Dakar, many teams competed in standard road going cars, maybe some suspension upgrades or a roll cage, but for the most part, they pretty much looked like their siblings on the dealers' lot. Not surprisingly a lot of the teams had to drop out as their cars would either break down or be damaged beyond repair, and some even going up in flames.
Hopefully nothing untoward will happen to your version, either easy or complex.
František has thrown a curve ball to me, I am having a hard time finding any information on this entry, #254, it was in either the 1987 or 1988 Dakar, beyond that I am coming up empty.
The model sheet contains both versions as usual, the easy and complex versions.
Does anyone one remember a postcard model of a Tatra 815 Puma of Karel Loprais?
I had one, and foolishly built it, never getting a second copy, and I guess I recycled the model.
The graphics were simple, showing some of Tatra logos, and colors.
Does anyone have multiple copies of this postcard still? if so, I would like 2 copies.
And this the Tatra 815 Puma I am talking about it
Day 6 brings the #294 Jeep Cherokee, driven by Cady and Douaud in the 1990 Paris - Algiers- Dakar rally.
There is not much information about their performance that I could find, or even in-race pictures.
A resin garage kit is the only other model I was able to find detailing this model.
The model comes with both version as we have seen in previous car kits, easy and complex.
From the 1984 edition of the Dakar, comes the #532 MAN KAT 8x8 from the Rothmans Porsche team.
The truck ran as part of the support team, and these vehicles had to follow the same route as the racers did, and there was even a separate score sheet for those support teams. One of the reasons why they drove the same route was to assist the racing vehicle if it broke down in the desert, field repairs could be done, and then if they didn't have the right parts, or it was too severe a problem, they could tow the vehicle towards the next bivouac where the entire mechanics team could work on the vehicle in preparation for the next stage.
8x8 trucks were truck landships driving in the Dakar, the sheer size of the truck was impressive.
The model has 3 pages, 2 pages with parts and one instruction diagram page.
The Romanian ARO 242 is up for day 4.
This version raced in the 1985 Dakar, but like so many other competitors has to abandon the race when something broke in the front end right before reaching the bivouac.
The paper model version, in its usual 1:100 scale, is a single sheet, with both the easy and more complex version.
Day 3's offer is the Mercedes Benz 450 SLC coupe which this version was driven by former Formula 1 driver Jochen Mass, and finished 62nd.
As with yesterday's Renault, the sheet contains both versions of the car, easy and complex.
